Baseball alarm clock

Abstract

An alarm clock in the form of a sports ball has an alarm clock assembly with a snooze-type audio alarm which is temporarily silenced when the ball is thrown against a wall. The alarm clock ball has a feasible and resilient core of a foamed plastic, such as styrofoam, and an overlying cover of a plastic material. The clock assembly is mounted within a recess in the styrofoam core and has display and button controls which are visible and accessible through an opening in the plastic cover. The clock assembly has a quiet electrical switch which controls the snooze alarm mechanism and which is operated by a normally closed deceleration switch located in the foam core. The deceleration switch has a spring-biased metal ball in normal contact with two conductive contacts. When the alarm clock is thrown against a wall, the metal ball is displaced due to its inertia on impact thus temporarily breaking contact and silencing the alarm.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An electronic alarm clock having an audio alarm which is quieted when the alarm clock is thrown against a wall, said alarm clock comprising: (a) a generally spherical-shaped casing having a flexible and resilient core and an external cover having an opening therein;   (b) a recess in said core extending from said cover partially into said core;   (c) an electronic alarm clock assembly mounted within said recess, said assembly having an electric battery and a digital liquid crystal time display normally visible through said opening in said cover without disassembling said spherical-shaped casing, said time display being substantially flus with said cover;   (d) control means for controlling the functions of said clock, said control means being operatively associated with said alarm clock assembly and being normally visible and accessable through said opening without disassembling said spherical-shaped casing;   (e) a printed circuit board including an alarm quiet means for silencing said alarm; and   (f) a switch means electrically connected to said alarm quiet means and disposed within said core, said switch means being a deceleration inertial switch operative upon impact when said alarm clock is thrown against a wall to activate said alarm quiet means and silence said alarm.   
     
     
       2. An alarm clock as in claim 1 wherein said deceleration switch means comprises a frame member, a pair of electrically conductive contacts mounted on said frame member, a conductive metal ball within said frame member and in normal contact with aid conductive contacts, a spring means having one end attached to said metal ball and the other end attached to said frame member, said spring means normally urging said metal ball against said conductive contacts, wherein when said alarm clock is thrown against said wall, said metal ball is displaced in said frame and breaks contacts with said electrically conductive contacts to open the electrical circuit and thereby silencing the alarm. 
     
     
       3. An alarm clock as in claim 1 wherein said audio alarm is a snooze-type alarm which, after being silenced for a predetermined period of time, is automatically reactivated. 
     
     
       4. An alarm clock as in claim 2 wherein after a predetermined period of time, said spring means urges said conductive metal ball back to its normal position to contact said electrical contacts and thereby close the circuit and reactivate said alarm. 
     
     
       5. An alarm clock as in claim 1 wherein said casing is in the form of a sports ball and said cover bears indicia and markings to simulate said sports ball. 
     
     
       6. An alarm clock as in claim 2 wherein said casing is in the form of a sports ball and said cover bears indicia and markings to simulate said sports ball. 
     
     
       7. An alarm clock as in claim 3 wherein said casing is in the form of a sports ball and said cover bears indicia and markings to simulate said sports ball. 
     
     
       8. An alarm clock as in claim 4 wherein said casing is in the form of a sports ball and said cover bears indicia and markings to simulate said sports ball.